Sister of the Sea

by Lena Mae Hill

  “Let me heal you,” she said, taking Yvonne’s hand. It was cold in hers, the fingers feeling frail instead of strong and capable.

  “Okay,” Yvonne said weakly.

  “Take my magic,” Raina said desperately. “I don’t care about it. I just want to heal you. Take as much as you need to recover your strength.”

  “Feed it to me,” Yvonne said weakly.

  “How much?” Raina asked, afraid of what might happen if she gave her too much. Though, in truth, her reserves were running low from healing Seeley and fighting off the pirates.

  “All of it,” Yvonne said. Her eyelids fluttered closed, and she went still in Raina’s arms.

  twenty-one

  Sagely

  Over the next week, Sagely and her group settled into life with the Coastline Coven. She spent her nights in Quill’s tent, and her days hanging with Gale and Shaneesha, or helping Eli recover bits of his memory and relay what he could to help them. The Winslow Coven was somewhere near a beach, but he couldn’t tell them exactly where. Their best bet seemed to stay and wait for the coven to come for them, but if they did that, it might be too late for the witches.

  One morning she woke up and crept out of Quill’s arms, nestling Maude into the crook of his shoulder so he wouldn’t be lonely. She hadn’t slept well, having nightmares about Viziri and the coven all night.

  After pulling on an off-the-shoulder electric blue sweatshirt and a pair of hot pink leggings, she headed to the beach to practice her Tae Kwon Do forms. No matter how caught up in her witch life she became, she was never going to let go of her training. It had come in handy more than once, and she still planned to complete her fourth-degree blackbelt test when it came time in a few years.

  When she got to the beach, she saw a figure walking further off, but she didn’t feel any weird magic, so she set about doing her forms, starting at the basic Chun-Gi as a warmup. Halfway through her Joong-Gun pattern, she looked up to realize the figure she’d seen was Fox. He was standing a ways off, watching her.

  “Hey, stalker,” she said, finishing her pattern before she jogged to meet him. He had a handful of seashells, and his hair was tossed from the salt breeze. The moment her eyes met his, the usual jolt of desire ran through her, but she was learning to live with it so it didn’t overwhelm her as much as it once had.

  “Hi,” he said, smiling and giving her a once-over. “Nice outfit.”

  “I’m working out,” she protested, tugging at the hem of her sweatshirt.

  “No, I mean it,” Fox said, eyeing her legs. “I like those pants. Spandex is very becoming on you.”

  “At least you didn’t say you’d be very becoming on me.”

  “I’d be—”

  “Okay, you didn’t have to say it,” Sagely said, laughing. “What are you doing down here?”

  “Oh, you know,” Fox said, tossing a shell into the waves. “Trying to spare myself the morning make-out noises that come from your tent.”

  “They do not,” Sagely said, her face warming.

  “Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun with your other fiancé,” Fox said. “But believe it or not, it’s not that much fun to be in the next tent.”

  “Fox,” she said, softening. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you could hear us.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, stiffening in her embrace. “All that smacking is enough to turn me off kissing for good.”

  “I hope not,” she said, leaning in to plant a kiss on his lips. She rather liked that she didn’t have to stand on tiptoes and pull him down for a kiss. His rosebud lips were right there for the kissing.

  “It’s fine,” he said, his hands circling her waist. “I knew you’d have a collective. I just imagined being…more a part of it.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said again. “It was insensitive of me. I’ll try to split my time more equally.”

  “Good,” he said, pulling her against him at last. “I have needs, too.”

  “You also have a hand,” she reminded him with a wicked grin.

  “So do you,” he said with an equally wicked smile. “Want to use it to help me out?”

  “Nice try,” she said, but she let her hands play over his back. His muscles felt as strong as they were, like steel cables under his skin.

  “I know Quill has your heart,” he said. “But you might have other needs, too. If he gets your whole heart, maybe I can get your whole body.”

  “Somehow I don’t think he’d be okay with that.”

  “Maybe I’m not okay with him having your whole heart.”

  “He doesn’t have my whole heart,” Sagely argued. “I just don’t know you as well.”

  “I can think of ways to get to know each other better…”

  “I’m sure you can,” she said, rolling her eyes and pushing off his absurdly hard chest. “But seriously, Fox. I barely know you.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  “I don’t know. What are your parents like? Do you have siblings?”

  Fox looked at her blankly. “What does that have to do with getting to know me?”

  “Um, it’s where you came from,” she said. “You know that Viziri murdered my parents. That shaped my life. Where are your parents?”

  “At home,” he said with a shrug. “They live in the faerie troupe like all the fae. I know them as well as the other faeries I grew up around.”

  “Faeries raise their children communally,” Sagely said, remembering Quill’s explanation.

  “Exactly,” Fox said. “I have some siblings, but I don’t know them any better than anyone else I grew up with. I only need to know I’m related to them so we don’t accidentally procreate. But now that I have you…” He caught her hand and drew her back, his arm circling her lower back and pressing her hips against his. A flare of desire shot straight down to her toes, which curled in the sand.

  Fox smiled and bit his lip with those dangerously pointed teeth, resting his forehead against hers.

  “Stop trying to hypnotize me with your eyes,” she said, locking eyes with him.

  “I’ll stop when you stop,” he said, slowly moving his hips against hers. She cursed her thin spandex pants, through which she could feel way, way too much for safety. With a shudder of longing, she dragged herself away.

  “Just to let you know, there will be no procreating for a very long time,” she said, pulling out her hair tie and shaking her red hair loose.

  “Not a problem,” Fox said. “Faeries live a very long time.”

  “And when we have children, they won’t be raised by a bunch of strangers,” she said. “I’ll be keeping my own kids, thank you very much.”

  “Whatever makes the lady happy,” he said with a bow.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry your childhood was that way. No offense to your people, but it sounds really sad to me.”

  Fox shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean. It was the way it was, and it doesn’t affect my life now.”

  Sagely took his hand and squeezed. “I’m glad,” she said, but she didn’t believe it for a minute.

  “Now that you’ve gotten to know me better, think we can go ahead and get to know each other in some more ways?” Fox asked as they started up the beach.

  “It takes more than a couple questions about your family to get to know you.”

  “And all humans want this before physical intimacy?”

  Sagely laughed. “Well, I don’t know about all of them. But this one does.”

  “How odd,” said Fox. “No one’s ever wanted to know about my family before. Or anything about me, really. I’m not sure why that matters.”

  “It matters to me,” Sagely said. “Now come on before all those witches eat our breakfast.”

  “They wouldn’t dare.”

  She elbowed him in the ribs. “Race you.”

  “What’s that mean?” Fox asked, but she’d already taken off, her feet sinking into the soft sand as she ran. A few seconds later, Fox passed her. When she finally
arrived at the camp, Fox was standing at the edge of the clearing, not even winded. He grinned and held out a hand to pull her up the final stretch of the slope.

  “Don’t you know you’re supposed to let the girl win?” she asked, gasping for breath.

  “I don’t think you’re the kind of girl who wants me to,” he said with a smirk.

  Maybe they did know each other a little bit, after all.

  twenty-Two

  Raina

  Raina waited, heart hammering, not daring to look up. Her throat was so tight she couldn’t swallow or breathe. She had defied the Sea Queen, the goddess Thalassa. She had dared to ask again for what had already been refused. Now she knelt at the queen’s feet—well, technically, her tail—at her mercy.

  But Queen Thalassa didn’t sound angry as she waited for Raina to dig the promised gift from the pouch around her neck.

  At last, Raina held out her hand, presenting the stone.

  Queen Thalassa’s eyes narrowed and she plucked the stone from Raina’s palm. For a minute, she simply held the stone, turning it over in her palm, rolling it between her fingers. As soon as it left her possession, Raina began to curse herself furiously. The queen would take it if she wanted it, steal it without giving Raina anything in return. Why hadn’t she bargained for it before the queen touched it?

  “Hmm, yes, I know someone who might like this,” Queen Thalassa said. “A seeing stone. Even I have never used one of these, and I’m as old as the sea itself.”

  Raina bit her tongue, not daring to ask what the queen could possibly get for such an item. What could a goddess possibly want for?

  If Raina gave her the stone, she’d never be able use it again. But if it could buy her into a mermaid’s body, what did it matter? She’d search the seas until she found her twin, even if it took a hundred years. She was tired of getting so close, only to have him slip away. And she’d already given up all her magic, so she was barely a witch, anyway.

  “But such rarity!” the Sea Queen cried suddenly, her eyes lighting with greed. “I think I shall keep it for myself.”

  “Does that mean…?” Raina asked, still not daring to hope.

  “It will take me a few days,” Queen Thalassa said. “But I shall grant your request.”

  Raina’s heart throbbed so hard she gasped, grasping her chest, afraid she was having a heart attack. “Really?” she asked in an annoyingly breathy, faint voice. For a second, she wondered what had become of her. She’d never been this weak, this pathetic. The old Raina would never have willingly parted with all her strength and power just for the sake of love. She’d never have knelt on hard wooden planks until her knees were bruised begging for anything. Not even from the goddess of the sea herself.

  “Oh, the other goddesses will be so jealous,” Queen Thalassa said gleefully, clasping the stone between both hands.

  “There are other goddesses? Down here?”

  “Why, of course,” Thalassa said. “I can’t rule an entire planet by myself. There’s more than one queen of all the land on earth, isn’t there? And there’s so much more down here than up there.”

  Somehow, this thought was a bit of a let-down for Raina. “But I’ll be one of your…subjects?”

  “Now, I can’t promise you’ll be a true mermaid,” Thalassa said. “You’ll certainly look like one, and have the physical attributes and abilities. But sometimes, not everything transfers. It’s not an exact science. Once you’re in mer form, you can test your abilities and see what you attained as a mer.”

  “Will I be able to sing?” Raina asked, her eyes going dreamy with the thought. She would sing and sing and never stop singing. If she sounded anything like Yvonne, she’d never want to hear anything else.

  “I don’t see why not,” the queen said. “Not swim along. It will take a few days for me to look into it and get your body switched over.”

  Raina gulped. “And the stone…”

  “What about the stone?” the queen asked, her eyes narrowing.

  “Do I get it back?”

  “Oh, now you want it back,” Thalassa said in a mocking tone.

  “Until you’re ready…”

  “No, you don’t get it back,” the queen snapped. “And you can’t get your magic back when you give it up to become a mer. There are no take-backs, as you humans call it. No do-overs. What’s done cannot be undone.”

  She did not mention to the queen that she had already given all her magic to Yvonne. She’d had surprisingly little left, and she suspected that maybe Yvonne had taken a bit of it without her knowing. Her ring had grown fainter over her time here, and now, it didn’t glow at all. But that was not part of her bargain with Thalassa, anyway. She’d offered that, but Thalassa hadn’t wanted it. Apparently, all her strength wasn’t good enough for the queen—but a random stone was.

  Now, all Raina had left was the seed of her magic, a dormant ember buried deep in the ashes of her heart. Her tiny flame. Sure, over time, it would grow into the blossoming, powerful magic she’d had since coming into her magic at age twelve. But for now, she had nothing to lose by giving up her witch status.

  “Do you think I’m not good for it?” Thalassa asked. “You don’t trust me? You think I’d trick you like a common jewel thief—a pirate?” As she spoke, her blonde hair snaked around her, moving as if alive, as if she were Medusa.

  “No, Your Majesty,” Raina said quickly, though she knew the queen could not be trusted. Still, she’d read a few stories about people angering gods, and she didn’t want to meet some unspeakable fate just when she’d almost attained everything she’d ever dreamed of. She would belong to the sea, be one with it. She would be as much a creature of the sea as Seeley, as Yvonne. She would be with her lover, always and truly. She would reunite with her twin, and together, they would all form their own school of mer.

  Or whatever they called it.

  She slid into the water at the base of Thalassa’s throne, her knees singing their relief at the end of their torture. She didn’t know how long she’d knelt there. Though she didn’t know if she’d ever see the stone again, what choice did she have? She couldn’t exactly jump onto the throne and throttle a goddess. Not if she wanted to live another day.

  So she put her arm around Seeley, who had been circling the pool while she had her audience with the queen, and together, they left Thalassa’s grand ship. Everything would turn out. The queen would not trick her as goddesses were apt to do. She had to keep believing that. She had to put her trust in a queen who had blatantly lied to her face. But it would be worth it to see her brother again. Worth it to see the look on Yvonne’s face when she joined her without the rubber dive suit and flippers and a bubble between them. It would be so worth it.

  twenty-Three

  Sagely

  Sagely closed her eyes, focusing her magic as hard as she could. Somewhere far away, she could feel a slight flicker. But she had to focus all her attention and try to tell Shaneesha where to go. Which was pretty much just a vague feeling that it was somewhere south. After a while, she felt her magic draining, the strain of it too much.

  “This is hopeless,” she said, throwing up her hands. “How am I supposed to find the coven with only meditation? This could take years, and by then, they’ll be so used to being dark witches they won’t want to come back!”

  “Which is exactly why a seeing stone would come in handy right now,” Fox said from the front seat.

  “If you don’t shut up about that, I am seriously going to punch you somewhere that ensures you never have to worry about having children.”

  Shaneesha pulled her car to the side of the road and turned back to look at Sagely, who was sitting in the back seat next to Quill and Eli. “Want me to do it for you?”

  Sagely took a deep breath. “I’ll spare his future children for now. But that’s you last warning, Fox.”

  “Fine, I’ll stop,” Fox said. “But let the record show it’s under threat of castration.”

  “No, you’re right,�
�� Sagely said, her head dropping back against the seat. “I’m such a dumb-ass. I should have held onto it, just let her use it.”

  “We didn’t know she was going to run off with a mermaid,” Shaneesha said bitterly. “I didn’t see anything wrong with her keeping it.”

  “Obviously, Fox should have kept it,” Sagely said. “I have no business owning something precious. Most of my life, I never owned anything. Everything belonged to my foster family. I knew that if I had to move again, it would stay with them, so I never let myself get attached. Maybe I don’t know how to treat something valuable.”

  “Obviously,” Fox muttered.

  “I’m sorry,” Sagely said, reaching forward to squeeze his shoulder.

  After a second, his tension melted, and he covered her hand with his. “It’s all right. I shouldn’t have given it to you without explaining its significance.”

  “As touching as this scene is, we’re still no closer to recovering the coven,” Quill said. “My mother is out there somewhere, being controlled by that bastard.”

  “You mean your father?” Fox asked innocently.

  “Yes,” Quill growled. “My father.”

  Sagely pulled her hand from Fox’s and sat back, taking Quill’s hand and leaning her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m trying to use my magic to sense them, but it’s just exhausting me so far.”

  “Don’t wear yourself out again,” Quill said, lifting her chin. His green eyes pooled with concern. “Remember what happened last time?”

  She remembered, all right. She’d refused to give herself time to recover and had taken too much void magic. She’d nearly had a breakdown because of it. If Fox hadn’t taken some of it off her hands, she didn’t know what would have happened to her.

  She reached forward again, taking Fox’s hand when he turned to see her. Holding each of their hands felt strange, but also right.